Local Water Generation

Water supplies in Orange County and the other counties in Southern California are either obtained from local sources or imported. During the 1989-90 fiscal year, the most recent period for which information is available, Orange County sources supplied 40% of the water used here, a decline from 46% the previous fiscal year. Orange County’s locally generated water in 1989-90 was about in the middle range of the six Metropolitan Water District consumers (the MWD services an area that stretches from Ventura County to the Mexican border and includes most of the heavily populated areas of the six Southern California urbanized counties). In San Bernardino County, for example, local water was nearly 70% of total water use; in San Diego County just 6%. Here’s how much of the water consumed in each of the six Southern California counties was locally generated during fiscal year 1989-90.

Percent Locally Generated by County during 1989-90 Los Angeles: 35% Orange: 40% Riverside: 67% San Bernardino: 68% San Diego: 6% Ventura: 21% Source: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California